The very heart of destruction

Leo and Perla's theatre between "Avita murì" (1978) and "De Berardinis-Peragallo" (1979)

Abstract

Avita murì and De Berardinis-Peragallo, performed during an era of traumatic upheavals for Italian history, represent the very heart of that creative phase of Leo and Perla’s theatre called by the actor himself «destruction of the theatre» (a period ended in 1981 by Peragallo’s abandonment). This destruction, not only professed on a theoretical level, but actually carried out by the two actors in their own artistic and existential experience, started with the return of the couple in Rome, following the exhaustion, around 1976, of their decentralization in Marigliano. The present contribution intends to analyze (mainly on the basis of archival documents and press clippings) the two shows, emblematic examples of an experimentation which aims to a systematic overthrow of the traditional scenic standards and to bring out a fatal pessimism towards human nature, questioning the possibility of doing, or rather being, theatre in contemporary age.